Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Aug 29, 2025

Booking Trump: No cuffs, no mugshot, no DNA swab, and perhaps the shortest perp walk in history

Booking Trump: No cuffs, no mugshot, no DNA swab, and perhaps the shortest perp walk in history

Trump hoped for a spectacle of victimization, plus a souvenir mugshot. Instead, he got no handcuffs, no mugshot and the shortest perp walk ever.
Donald Trump had reportedly hoped for a pageant of victimization on Tuesday when he surrendered on a 34-count indictment in Manahattan.

Instead, there were no handcuffs or souvenir mugshot. And while news cameras were allowed to capture the historic moment when an unshackled Trump was escorted into the courtroom, the stretch of hallway he traversed measured just five feet.

It was the shortest "perp walk" that New York City lawyers can remember.

"I'm sure it was a big disappointment for him," said attorney Ed Hayes, a 40-year veteran of New York City's courts. "It wasn't the spectacle he wanted it to be."

Hayes and other long-time New York lawyers say they have never seen booking take so little time either — just one hour and seven minutes. The process usually takes hours.

"All they did was take his prints," said Trump attorney Joe Tacopina. There was no mugshot taken, and Trump was not swabbed for the state and national DNA database, Tacopina said.

"The FBI already has his DNA. He was the president of the United States," he added.

Trump himself had said privately at Mar-a-Lago that he looks forward to being perp-walked and to being photographed by the press in handcuffs.

That would have been the normal course, said longtime New York City criminal defense attorney Stacey Richman.

Metal bike-rack style barricades are typically set up along a long hallway in Manhattan Criminal Court, she said, with high-profile defendants then "marched" in handcuffs past these press pens as the cameras record the moment.

"When the celebrity or demi-celebrity surrenders to the DA's office, they'll usually set up a pen for the press," she said. "Here, of course, there were different security concerns ... But a five-foot perp walk is extraordinary."

Richman also said that in her more than 30 years of experience, she's never seen a perp walk where the defendant was uncuffed.

"That is very significant. Because they say to everybody else that's part of the process. And it's a process that is very emotionally challenging to any free person," she said.

"I have people, similar to Mr. Trump, with zero criminal histories, presenting no danger to anyone, and they insist on cuffing them to walk them through the various booking processes in the building," she added.

Richman wonders if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg insisted on not taking a mug shot because he "didn't want that to be used for fundraising" by his 2024 campaign.

Trump, widely considered to the GOP frontrunner, still sent a fundraising pitch off of a fake mugshot photo. His campaign has been fundraising since a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him last Thursday. He claimed on Wednesday that he's raised almost $10 million.

But another seasoned defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, thinks that Trump's speedy bare-bones booking, and his minimalist perp walk, just made good sense.

"They wanted him in that building the shortest time possible — everyone did, the Secret Service, the court officers, the court system, everyone," Aidala said.

The chief of public safety for the New York state court system, Michael Magliano, and Dennis Quirk, who heads the state Court Officers Association, are in the perp walk photographs, pictured walking with Trump into the courtroom, Aidala noted.

"They all decided we don't need Trump in the building being booked from 6 a.m. until his arraignment at 2:30 in the afternoon," the lawyer said.

"I compliment them, because common sense prevailed," he added. "There are some circumstances where you just take the rulebook and you throw it out the window, and this is one of them."

Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records connected to hush-money payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen previously admitted to wiring a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels less than two weeks before the election, money that purchased her silence about an affair she alleged she had with Trump in 2006.

Cohen pleaded guilty to several felonies related to the payment and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels and any wrongdoing in connection with the payments.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
Labour set to freeze income tax thresholds in long-term 'stealth' tax raid
Coca‑Cola explores sale of Costa coffee chain
Trial hears dog walker was chased and fatally stabbed by trio
Restaurateur resigns from government hospitality council over tax criticism
Spanish City funfair shut after serious ride injury
Suspected arson at Ilford restaurant leaves three in critical condition
Tottenham beat Manchester City to go top of Premier League
Bank holiday heatwave to hit 30°C before remnants of Hurricane Erin arrive
UK to deploy immigration advisers to West Africa to block fake visas
×